Today we present an honest (harsh?) video comparison of Asphalt 6! The nitty-gritty details can be found in the video description below.

From MrNokiaTech:

“NOTE: Gameloft “ported” Asphalt 6 to the Symbian^3 OS. It appears that they were not able to harness the power of the Broadcom GPU and decided to leave out a LOT of graphical detail in order to achieve a smooth framerate. This video is NOT about which OS or phone is better but to simply show the quality of the Asphalt 6 port.

From Deaconclgi at Mynokiablog.com:

“…..The textures are all low-res, there is pop-up, there are slowdowns in places, the look around controls in the garage are choppy, the ingame lighting is dramatically reduced.

The biggest offender is that HALF of the trackside detail is MISSING/LEFT OUT!!! So much so that I initially wanted a refund. Buildings, trees, boats, planes, fish, flags and whole sections of track detail has been REMOVED!

With half the details, no wonder it runs smoother than Asphalt 5. Even the in-race cars don’t have the same detail as they did at the car selection screen.

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This is a sloppy effort. It seems that Gloft can’t code for Synbian^3 that well or just doesn’t want to invest in a proper port. Even the menus and colors are low res and watered down.

Ultimately, I am glad to see more HD games on Symbian, but Asphalt 6 for Symbian^3 is more SD than HD.

And yes, the 32 million polygons per second GPU in Symbian^3 phones could handle A6 as originally made, with full detail. I chalk the reduction in detail to the fault of the developers.”

I still recommend buying Asphalt 6 for Symbian^3 as it is the best Arcade racer for the platform, has loads of content, a great soundtrack and at the very least, it can be played on the big screen via HDMI/RGB, finally, it is a million miles better that the HORRIBLE, low framerate Asphalt 5 Symbian^3 port from 2010.”

In my hands-on time with A6 S^3, I have also noticed that Multiplayer has more options than the Android version. S^3 has Local via Bluetooth and Wifi and Online via the Mobile network and the Android version just finds an available connection.

Has anyone else noticed any differences not mentioned in the lengthy video description above? Let us know in our comments section!

Good day everyone!
My name is Demitrius Harris and I am a fan of all things true. I currently hold a position in the IT Department at a college and I teach various classes when the opportunity presents itself. In the past, I was a Special Education Teacher and a Technology Education teacher at an elementary school and have held titles in the Financial industry.
What does that mean for you, our dear readers? It means that I love to write and communicate as accurately as possible! It is my hope, that I will always be able to provide factual information concerning all things related to Nokia (even when the Nokia brand isn't printed) and anything else in the scope of technology that fits within the purpose of MyNokiaBlog. I humbly thank you all for reading my posts (and the MNB Team) that sometimes contain THOUSANDS of words. You all are the best and most respectful blog supporters in the world! Thank you for choosing MyNokiaBlog.com!
Sincerely,
Demitrius Harris.
Favorite phone of all time: Nokia N82 - Black

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stylinred

glad i didnt buy it yet

Deaconclgi

If you only own a S^3 device, Asphalt 6 HD is a must buy. Well worth it as there aren’t any arcade style racing games better than Asphalt 6 on Symbian^3.

If you own an Android or iOS device, buy A6 for those OSes. They are graphically superior.

stylinred

i couldnt stand paying for what i heard; im not going to give someone $ for a half assed attempt

im fine with asphalt 5 and need for speed etc etc

Deaconclgi

I understand that. Just remember, Asphalt 5 (FIVE) for Symbian^3 is the worst version known to man ans A5 isn’t even half as good as Asphalt 6

Either way, I am glad that Mynokiablog could bring more truth to Nokia users, whether it is good or bad.

stylinred

ye i just mentioned asp5 since i already have it

hacker

Why buy there are many links out there ;P Get one and play LOL

Mapantz

Exactly, it’s not hard to find a signed copy of this that’s been uploaded.
Also, i’m quite happy with the game, been playing it for a week now, i don’t find it laggy, much the same as the last one.

Sanjay

How does this compare to NFS Shift and Raging Thunder 2?

Jay Montano

Wow, when I first saw the demos I thought finally, Asphalt Game that doesn’t look laggy on N8. Hmm.. I guess we could call that music pausing an all new special feature…

Another thing I noticed is that in NFS, the accelerometer controls were much smoother on my WP handset than on N8.

A6 still a great game though :).

How much does toned down resolution play in this? Instead of working at 800×480 or 960X640, it’s 640×360? I’d expect less pixels easier to push but less pixels able to show less detail. I guess that makes more of a difference when judging identical photos and screen quality than games (where here the level of detail is obviously much more toned down for the Symbian version).

What is truly amazing is that the BCM GPU in the N8 is more powerful than the SGX in the N900…..talk about lack of hardware/OS optimization for Symbian^3 :S

I am afraid to see what cut outs did they do to the New York stage on Symbian^3!!!!!!!!

Deaconclgi

As far as screen resolution, they could have kept the native in-game texture resolution higher, as in Need For Speed or even gamelofts own Spiderman, Eternal Legacy, HAWX and others. If not mistaken, most of the other S^3 HD games have superb textures, for example, Backbreaker.

Oh well, as you stated. A6 is still a great game and I am glad to see Gameloft releasing more titles. I heard a rumor that there are more Gloft titles to be released in the coming weeks.

Personally, I don’t believe it, but if so, it would be nice, something is better than nothing!

soussef24

They didn’t only reduce the resolution which was mandatory given the native screen resolution of the S^3 but they did also reduce the quality of the texture and get rid of a lot of environment objects…

Deaconclgi

It isn’t mandatory to have low resolution textures due to a low resolution screen. That’s like saying that the devices don’t do 720p because the screen isn’t 720p!

Texture resolution is independent of screen resolution and can be as high as the GPU can handle.

Gameloft probably didn’t want to invest in proper coding to utilize the GPU correctly (low polygon cars on the race is a sham from the 90s) and took the easy, less expensive and less time consuming way of just reducing all details to meet the target framerate.

If the game was originally coded to run perfectly within the abilities of a SGX or Qualcomm GPU, it would need to be recoded to take advantage of the BCM GPU.

It is highly likely that Gameloft looked at the state of Symbian and figured it was better for the company to not waste time and money on BCM specific optimizations. Only Symbian devices use that GPU versus the SGX and Qualcomm GPUs that are more widely available in the market across several OSes.

Smart profit maximization from gameloft, bait and switch for the customer.

Seriously, when was the last time your in-race car wasn’t the same one as the one at the car select screen?

tiyo xi

jay has shot this video with N8 ,, showing red ir light one screen

http://www.gdv.altervista.org Markk117

gameloft sucks at programming games, this is a shit porting, look at the n900 less power cpu and run the HD version of A6 android…

Deaconclgi

True!

Ali Abdulla

N900 processor is better than the n8.. the 600mhz compared to 680mhz is not the way to judge

wats sad is, the N8 has got a great GPU, but alas noone uses it

Deaconclgi

The entire Symbian^3 OS uses the GPU. Everything graphical uses the GPU as the GPU is the Graphics Processing Unit.

The games, the video playback and recording,the music player, the UI and other GPU accelerated content all rely on the GPU.

Every piece of code that uses OpenGL uses the GPU. QT uses the GPU (if programmed to) and the list goes on.

This is simply a case of poor GPU utilization and the CPU does not amount to any major hinderance concerning graphical content.

I was speaking about the N900 SGX GPU as in my reply to Jay above. That is what is meant by the N900 having a weaker processor. Sorry I wasn’t clear in my reply.

Even if I OC my N900 to 1.2Ghz, it’s GPU is still weaker (cannot push more polygons than the BCM GPU) than the one in S^3 devices.

art_vaider

Fellas don’t forget that bcm2727 gpu got less video ram than gpu’s on android devices.
Egypt 2.0 glbenchmark is not working on ^3 devices, it tells that you have not enough texture memory. Maybe that’s why gameloft reduces textures in Asphalt 6 for symbian ?!

gen

the physics of this game is horrible. Need for speed is much better.

Deep Space Bar

um “HD” after the name of a game that has heavy graphics is overrated……it shouldn’t be there if it’s the same game as the other ……and yes it support 1080x720p but still it’s not full they should remove “HD” from every name of a game cause it’s not

outdated os

HD – Herp Derp

SGean

That would explain why i was able to play the game without my N8 going anywhere near hot after 30min..

http://sh0ck.net Sh0cK

Die Nokia, Die.

Stan

Die Google, Die

jura

google wont…even under pressure of lawsuits…it’ll still flourish….coz they are evolving their OS

nokia will eventually be a subsidy of MS some day….and truely this game has been judicially compared….g2 isnt a 1ghz superphone but the game still looks better on it…a smartphone isnt very smart if apps are not nice…

DAEX

I just know A6 cannot fully consume all resources of GPU.

biny

hahaha i have complete it before a month n symbians r getting it now
very funny n about graphics first compare ur nokia n8 with a galaxy s

migo

It’s not surprising they didn’t put the effort in. Symbian users are desperate for anything, it’s not like there are any other games to choose from.

Moe

I gave up on Nokia and symbian yesterday. still got an N8 and an N95, but it’s about that time I Went ahead and ordered a Galaxy S2, $650+shipping, but I know it’ll be worth it. Still reading this blog everyday tho and got love for nokia and symbian. peace out.

biny

excellent decision
i will advise every1 to do the same

jura

the game retails at 1/4th price of the iOS and android versions in the indian ovi store…what more do you expect…..and gameloft’s primary focus is apple coz thats their revenue source ever since 2009….surely they wont spend hours trying to port a game when they can earn much more from a new iOS title

Sad N8 owner

No love for symbian… Still the last to get a Google+ app. If we ever DO get one……

Asphalt 6 way better than asphalt 5….. Btw did u guyz check out dungeon hunter 2 hd by gameloft??….. Now theres a good rpg game u’d get glued to….. No kidding…..

waynebvtb

200 million symbian users approx aroun the world…. Developers would have atleast a million downloads….. LoL….

Michael

your n8 has some serious lagging and loading issues :/ ive put mine side by side to your video my n8 loaded much much faster and yours has some serious purple tinting issues.A win for android here have to admit

Vivek Garg

So, in this case, We can not compare FPS. How to measure the performance of the game? Is there any way to measure the texture graphics also (Like number of objects in each frame)?

I simply could not depart your web site prior to suggesting that I extremely enjoyed the usual information an individual provide for your guests? Is going to be back steadily to check up on new posts

yabai.youth

Could Gameloft’s decision to create a lower quality port of Asphalt 6 for Symbian^3 be a result of smaller RAM memory on the N8? I’ve noticed that graphic intensive games on my N8 tend to skip and jump a lot; which I have always attributed – perhaps incorrectly – to low RAM memory.

In my experience, Gameloft has some of the highest quality games on the Symbian platform. I’ve paid for all of the Gameloft games on my N8, my rationale being that if sales remain high for Gameloft, they would be more inclined to continue porting games over to Symbian^3. However if Gameloft insists on porting lower-quality versions of its games to Symbian^3, I’m not sure if I should be giving them my money.

tyr8338

Asphalt 6 is fun game to play, I dont like racing games but Ive menaged to finish around 30 races in a6.

Graphic on symbian version might be worse but tbh it`s hardly noticable when you play as long as game runs smooth, it`s fast paced game and graphics are good enough on symbian + gameplay is fun.

Most imporant thing is that symbian version runs quite smooth, Ive had major slowdowns only in one race of 30 (might be connected to using bike as vehicle, didnt had slowdowns without bike on screen) I played so it`s ok.

Mobile games need to be fun first and graphic is important but let`s face the truth: If I want eyecandy I play battlefield 3 in 1920×1080 resolution on ultra – mobile games are just ages behind graphic wise so on phone it`s more about gameplay being fun ten graphics.